Lawrence Bergeron has traveled to countries home to the world's poorest children. And in each he's seen kids dying of starvation and diseases caused by drinking filthy water.

But it's a problem that can be changed, he told a packed classroom at the Lake County Central YMCA in Painesville on Saturday.

In three two-hour shifts, hundreds of volunteers packed boxes of food destined for children foraging for food in garbage dumps in Guatemala.

"Thirty-thousand children starve to death a day. Have you ever skipped a meal? Have you ever gone without food for two days? Three? Four? How about five? Do you know what the pain feels like? It's so intense you want to cry. Many of these children do," Bergeron said.

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"And within two weeks of not eating anything they lay down and they go to sleep. And they never wake up. It wrecked my life years ago when I held a child that was starving to death, so weak he could not speak. We don't know what starvation is like."

His travels led Bergeron to found A Child's Hope International, a Cincinnati-based nonprofit that serves orphans and vulnerable children.

The event, which was sponsored by A Child's Hope International and Kids Against Hunger, a humanitarian food-aid organization, fit perfectly with the Y's mission, said Dick Bennett, executive director and CEO of the Lake County YMCA.

"Our three main areas of focus are healthy living, youth development and social responsibility. One of the ways that we think that answers that question of social responsibility is not only how do we help people who come to us, but how do we help the community?" he said.

"We've done that in many ways over the years, but this was a really unique opportunity for us not only to partner with our own members, but also partner with churches because the churches already have a network of help."

The food would be going to Guatemala to aid the organization Help for Orphans & Widows Worldwide, which was founded in 2003 by a Texas couple, Phil and Marianne Nelson.

At the kick-off to Saturday's event, Marianne Nelson thanked the volunteers and said the food makes a great difference in the lives of the children.

Another organization that finds use for food provided by Kids Against Hunger is Hope Haven, an international ministry that delivers wheelchairs to children in poverty-stricken countries, said Mark Richard, director of operations for Hope Haven.

Richard said he's worked in Guatemala since 1980. During the years Hope Haven has transformed how it helps the people who need their services.

"We're trying to be more a part of the lives of these families," he said.

"We're doing a lot more follow-up."

That follow-up has included building simple homes with stoves. But a stove isn't much use without firewood to fuel it or food to cook on it. Richard said he always tries to carry a box of food from Kids Against Hunger when he travels.

"It's a question I always ask, 'Do you have food?' " he added.

To help find volunteers, Bennett said the Y sought assistance from local churches.

Jeff Pierce, pastor at Leroy Community Chapel, said events like this give volunteers a vision of another world, another set of experiences that are so removed from what they might know.

"A kid sitting in there and watching (Bergeron's) presentation now has exposure to numbers and a reality that they've never experienced," he said. "Then they actually get to put their hands on something that's going to make a difference to those kids. All of a sudden their world gets bigger."

The food rolling off the volunteers' assembly lines was a special high-protein formula with 21 vitamins and minerals, six dried vegetables, highly-fortified soy protein and rice, Bergeron said. Each volunteer, in two hours of work, would make enough sealed food parcels to feed a child for an entire year.

Working on the packing line, Tim French, pastor of Kirtland Christian Fellowship, called the experience exciting.

"It's the teamwork and just the enthusiasm to help others that is really good," he said. "There's a lot of teenagers out there. Probably 70 percent of the volunteers are teenagers. It's nice to see young people out here."

Bennett expected between 250 and 300 volunteers to cycle through the three packing shifts on Saturday.

"About 64,000 meals will be packed today," he said. "(Bergeron) was telling us last night that if a child got onto this food it can reverse malnutrition for a child within six months. We have a really great opportunity here."

Some of the packed food will remain in Lake County and is headed to the food bank, Bennett said.

The rest is off to help H.O.W.W. and its work in Guatemala.

Each box contains 36 packages of food and each package can feed six people. The boxes also have water cleansing materials and instructions.